Humankind Advancing, Vol.1, No.3 July 1990

ON BASIC ASSUMPTIONS

CONTENTS

Quotes from Jordan and from Konner

Editorial
Quote from Gyatso (14th Dalai Lama)
Quotes from Boulding and from Jonas

Questioning Basic Assumptions
Basil McDermott -- [The Forbidden Agenda; synopsis]
Quote from Falk, Kim & Mendlovitz
T.E. Jones -- [Options For the Future; excerpts]

Correcting Basic Assumptions
The Co-Evolutionary Research Ideology -- [including philosophy by Patricia Churchland]

Co-Evolution of Facts and Values
Jeffrey Wicken -- [Toward an Evolutionary Ecology of Meaning; excerpts]
Melvin Konner -- [The Tangled Wing; excerpts]
Roger W. Sperry -- [Changed Concepts of Brain and Consciousness: Some Value Implications; excerpt]
Quote from Birch & Cobb

Toward Intercultural Understanding
Quotes from Gyatso (14th Dalai Lama)
The Concept of Wabi
Hanna Newcombe -- [The expansions of Economics; excerpts]
Randall Forsberg -- [Questioning World-Government]
Quote from Solszhenitzyn

Thought in Action
The University of the World
Quote by Glossup
Contentment [introducing a quarterly)

Reflections

References

About the Publisher/Editor


[The evolving universe] is a world of turbulence and fear, but in the last analysis we may rely, perhaps, only upon the quiet, fragile, but persistent core of loving humanity which presses constantly for more open expression, actualization!

Virginia Jordan (1982).

* * * * *
They [two different species preceding homo] represented, respectively, the gracile [small and lithe] and robust [larger and thicker-boned] forms of the genus, and were presumed to range over large portions of Africa, before one of them, the gracile form, gave rise to our own genus, homo.

Melvin Konner (1982)


Editorial:

The present issue deals with the following problem: "How can fundamental assumptions be questioned and adjusted while fast and decisive action seems vital?"

Acting on the basis of wrong assumptions will lead us into the abyss as surely as suspending all action while being carried with an enormous momentum into the wrong direction. Yet, it is precisely the latter that is recommended in the following synopsis. While I strongly agree with the first part of McDermatt's arguments, I strongly disagree with his conclusion.

The remainder of this quarterly largely deals with material relevant to the solution of this problem opened for discussion by the insights of McDermatt.

* * * * *
Such human qualities as morality, compassion, decency, wisdom, and so forth have been the foundations of all civilizations.

Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama)

* * * * *
"We believe too many things which are not true."

Kenneth Boulding (1982)

* * * * *
"...the spell of utopia can well become an added danger, precipitating what should be held in check. For when it really is a case of bringing inchoate "man" first to himself, then no price may seem to high and no ruthlessness forbidden."

- - -
"Hope we should, quite contrary to the utopian hope, that in future too, every contentment will breed its discontent, every having its desire, every resting its unrest, every liberty its temptation -- even every happiness its unhappiness. It is perhaps the only certainty we have about the human heart that it will not disappoint us in this expectation.

But as regards the much needed improvement of conditions for much or all of mankind, it is vitally necessary to unhook the demands of charity, justice, and reason from the bait of utopia. For their own sakes, neither pessimistically nor optimistically, but realistically should we heed these demands."

Hans Jonas (1984)


QUESTIONING BASIC ASSUMPTIONS

Synopsis of "The Forbidden Agenda" by W.B.McDermott

The main message of W. Basil McDermott, who teaches "On the Seriousness of the Future" and "The Study of the Future" at the Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, is that we cannot reduce avoidable misery on earth if our basic assumptions are incorrect, and that detached research regarding our assumptions is impossible in a climate of urgency and panic. -- Calm detachment, he therefore believes, is far more important than action, which cannot possibly help if initiated on a basis of wrong assumptions. "We do not need to try harder," he maintains, "as much as we need to learn how to think differently."

His article "The Forbidden Agenda" in the Transnational Perspective, Vol.15, No.1, 1989, describes "an invisible, subtle, pervasive, and largely unexplored taboo system" regarding the full recognition of the inadequacy of human nature, and the true understanding of the magnitude and complexity of our problems. Calls for immediate action "before it is `too late'" leave no time to consider the "insufficiency of our knowledge about how things really work in the world."

"The visible agenda of mankind," Professor McDermott writes, "constantly focuses on ways to increase commitment, caring, involvement; the hidden agenda poses nervous questions about competency, limits, unintended consequences." In contrast, he urges an agenda that "does not consist in the yearly, monthly, or weekly reshuffling of the latest crisis issue confronting our species but an effort to peer deeper into these various issues in order to understand in a fresh manner precisely what it is we think we are trying to accomplish, what means are currently at our disposal, and what kinds of problems and issues will persist after we have engaged ourselves as best we can."

We are asked to consider "what we think it is best to do when we cannot do what we wanted to do in the first place," and McDermott is much concerned with "an invisible world of control systems that we do not understand." Therefore it seems better to him to hesitate and to wait than to be guided by rash and unfortunate decisions. He admits to a component of tragedy of this point of view, but adds that "somewhere well beyond our inadequate notions of optimism and pessimism is another philosophy of the future waiting in the wings for its entry onto the stage of history." The article ends with his belief that "the areas of investigation contained in The Forbidden Agenda contain mankind's best hope that the next act in the drama we call life shall not be the final one."

To many persons dedicated to our future, these revelations will appear revolutionary. The careful wording used in this highly sensitive area invites contradictory interpretations, fears, hopes, and tantalizing speculations. I will return to this topic in my reflections at the end of the journal.

* * * * *
"What we feel, believe, think, expect or wish shapes not only our present behavior but also the kind of future we will transmit and posterity will inherit. ... 500 years ago, well informed Europeans had an image of the world in which the earth was flat. They therefore believed it was impossible (utopian) to sail west to get to Asia. ... the planet earth was also believed to be the center of the entire universe. As a consequence, scientists were unable and unwilling to acquire knowledge about gravitational forces that might be overcome to achieve a variety of technological breakthroughs, including aerial flight. ... An image can constrain the reform of "social reality" in harmful ways."

Falk, R., Kim, S. and Mendlovitz, S.H. (1982)

* * * * *
T.E. Jones -- Excerpts from Options for the Future (1980).

Many of the far reaching consequences of intentional change have been unintended, unanticipated, and undesirable. (P.1)

Most U.S. futurists stress the need to stimulate inputs from all segments of the populace concerning the desirability of alternative futures... [but] having the polity shape and implement policies does run the serious risk that maximization of short-term benefits will prevail over policies required to meet long-term needs... [therefore] forecasters and planners need to detect current forms of behavior that are oriented toward distinctly undesirable outcomes for collectivities and, then, design constructive policy changes that promote perceived commonalties of interest. (P.16)

What really matters is whether decision makers remain sufficiently aware and flexible to change their policies as forecasts go awry. (P.29)

What we require is a comparative analysis of the ways in which incompatible assumptions tend to produce conflicting forecasts..... [leading to the] need to evaluate these assumptions. (P.31)

The specific time when a major policy is developed has come to depend increasingly on Research and Development (R & D) programs. These programs can be instituted by political decisions...

Shifts in value priorities often influence political decisions. (P.59)

Underlying the claim that technology constitutes the leading edge of change is an implicit model of human nature rationally using technology to resolve sociocultural problems. Much uncertainty surrounds the issue of whether the cost of many feasible technologies will be low enough to permit widespread implementation....

Thus, a technologically determined near-utopia appears to be a chimera. (P.60)

The growth controversy may well occupy center stage during the next decade or two. Its outcome will profoundly shape the future of the human species. (P.149)

[Stanford Research Institute (SRI) analysts' views] "...most contemporary problems ...[are] brought about by a combination of proliferating knowledge, industrial development unmoderated by a larger sense of social responsibility, rising population levels...and an expanding have/have-not gap." (P.151)

[Discussing future abundance without pollution] We may hope that this will occur, but to base all policies concerning industrial and population growth on such an uncertain assumption would be foolhardy. (P.238)

Often the need to adjust values rendered obsolete by changed situations has not attracted sufficient attention until after crises have made relatively smooth adaptation unfeasible. Even when the need for change has been perceived in time, various dissenting groups have frequently adopted conflicting sets of values. Not all, and sometimes none, of these sets have been optimal. Relatively nonadaptive normative changes have often prevailed over competing changes that would have been more appropriate. (P.271)

Proposed correctives for perceived weaknesses have often been too extreme or have generated other problems. (P.305)

When conflicting normative assumptions of different forecasters arise from incompatible factual beliefs -- exemplified by divergent beliefs about the likely consequences of continued economic growth -- one way to resolve the disagreement is to present evidence that induces agreement in belief. (P.308)


CORRECTING BASIC ASSUMPTIONS

The Co-Evolutionary Research Ideology.

Contrasting basic assumptions lie at the root of many unresolvable conflicts. -- Do we have a tool, a science, or anything of this kind that deals with the correction of erroneous basic assumptions?

I believe that the "co-evolutionary research ideology" as described by the philosopher of science, Patricia Churchland (1986), comes closest to what we need to overcome both a blind forward rush into unforeseen dangers and resignation to unfortunate developments we can foresee.

The "co-evolutionary research ideology," which has greatly contributed to the success in science, encourages the approach of two opposing theories toward a common position closer to the truth than any of the former. It works through a method in which successful research results in the pursuit of one of these theories elicit new insights, adjustments, and research designs in the opposing one. These new findings, in turn, illuminate and adjust the former, and so on, until the best possible approach to the truth is reached. Often, none of the original theories has to be abolished, but each is enriched and enlightened by the opposing one.

An example is the theory that poverty and slums cause diseases vs. the theory that diseases are caused by germs -- two views which about 100 years ago were fighting each other fanatically. We now know that poverty and slums cause diseases because germs proliferate under these conditions. There is no reason left why one of these theories should be defended against the other one.

If such methods could be applied to solve political and ideological disagreements, wars will become unnecessary and humanity will have made an immense step forward.


CO-EVOLUTION OF FACTS AND VALUES

Jeffrey S. Wicken

The World is body and spirit -- experiencing, hungering, hoping, and wondering. Our world's present starvation is largely spiritual, and the millions who die each year from physical starvation do so in the wake of this spiritual poverty. We don't know what to do with ourselves as a species. (P.154).

What science has done for us technologically doesn't do a thing to offset its "bad news" that we are not sons and daughters of God breathing the timeless Platonic form of His pure thought into matter....Maybe we are selling the evolution epic short ontologically, and maybe the people are right in not swallowing it. There is no way to get rid of evolution. It is reality. (P.156)

Since each decade of human activity increasingly determines the course of this planet's evolution, our responsibility for the future can not be underestimated....Evolution carries profound implications for fostering "universal" religious sensibilities that might save us against our self-destructive impulses. (P.157)

History has revealed humans to be motivated jointly by the desire for clarity and the need for meaning....Mixing clarity with meaning is the stuff of contemporary evolutionary-theological thought. (P.158)

- - -
From: Toward an Evolutionary Ecology of Meaning, Zygon, 24,153- 184, (June 1989).

Jeffrey S. Wicken is professor of biochemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

* * * * *
Melvin Konner. -- Excerpt from The Tangled Wing (1982).

At the conclusion of all our studies, we must try once again to experience the human soul as soul, and not just as a buzz of bioelectricity; the human will as will, and not just a surge of hormones; the heart not as a fibrous sticky pump, but as the metaphoric organ of understanding. We need not believe in them as metaphysical entities -- they are as real as the flesh and blood they are made of. But we must believe in them as entities; not as analyzed fragments, but as wholes made real by our contemplation of them, by the words we use to talk of them, by the way we have transmuted them to speech. (Pp. 435/36)

If you ask me how to set your sail in the storm of claim and counterclaim, of fact and lie and theory, of warning and prophecy and judgment and exhortation, I do have a bit of advice that I earnestly believe in, which can be summarized in the one-word injunction, Doubt. (P.423)

Marxism, psychoanalysis, learning theory, instinct theory, cognitive theory, structuralism, sociobiology...not a single one is false in its essence, but each one false in its ambitions and in its condemnation of the others, (foreword).

[After description of a study involving hundreds of hours of observations, using uniform methods] In all six cultures [Mexico, Kenya, India, Japan, the Philippines, and New England], boys differed from girls in the direction of greater egoism and/or greater aggressiveness, usually both, (p.112).

It must be emphatically added that every genetically caused alteration...is subject to reversal by an appropriate change in the environment that is already known or that can be found out, (p.104).

The human propensity to violence is only a part, and probably a minor part, of the problem of human destructiveness, (pp. 423/24).

[The major problem threatening our future is unrestricted population growth, closely followed by greed.] More important, more lasting, and potentially more damaging than simple population growth, however, is the continually expanding wants and needs...of the already existing population.

While we are waiting for human beings to be transformed by some combination of science and magic and the very best of will into the beautiful raw material we all want them to be, we may lose our last chances to take action of practical value that will ensure that people are around long enough for that ultimate transformation to come over them. Recognizing the limitations of human nature, and the evil in it, is a necessary prerequisite for designing a social system that will minimize the effects of those limitations, the expression of that evil, (p.418).

The dinosaurs ruled this planet for over hundred million years, at least a hundred times longer than the brief awkward tenure of human creatures, and they are gone almost without a trace. We can do the same more easily and, in an ecological sense, we would be missed even less. What's the difference?...the best answer I can think of is that we know, we are capable of seeing what is happening. We are the only creatures that understand evolution, that conceivably can alter its very course. It would be too base of us to simply relinquish this possibility through pride, or ignorance, or laziness.

- - -
Melvin Konner is Professor of Anthropology at Emery University, Atlanta, U.S.A.

* * * * *
Roger W. Sperry -- Excerpt from Changed Concepts of Brain and Consciousness: Some Value Implications. (1983)

Society nowadays is on the wrong track when it continues to try to treat global ills with more and more science and technology. We've begun to learn the hard way that a point has been reached already in human numbers and diminishing returns where technological solutions, in the absence of population controls, tend to just make matters worse in the long run rather than better. Most gains are wiped out in time by the ever-growing demands of expanding human numbers. The short term benefits usually serve to get us more enmeshed in a self-feeding, vicious spiral of mounting population, pollution, increased energy demands, resource depletion, poverty, and other worsening world conditions. One thing enforces another and we become more and more helplessly entrapped, deeper and deeper, year by year. (P.21)

The only solution visible to date for breaking these vicious spirals, in a way that would seem at all reasonable and humane, is to somehow achieve a change worldwide in the kinds of values and beliefs we live and govern by. This, of course, is where the need for a new theology or new global ethic comes in. (P.21)

To halt or reverse the current population and other adverse trends is going to require counter forces of the most powerful kind. Nuclear war might do it, as might also a severe global famine, a large asteroid collision, or some other decimating worldwide catastrophe. The catastrophe from simply allowing present trends to continue should also be effective. A much happier solution is the one mentioned, namely a new value system, theology or global ethic that will bring a fundamental change in human value priorities. It would go a long way, for example, to help treat current world conditions if people generally were to acquire a deep conviction that it is not just unwise or inexpedient, but actually immoral and even sacrilegious to pollute our world, to overpopulate, to deplete irreplaceable resources, eradicate other species, or in any other way to despoil, degrade, or desecrate for coming generations the quality of our biosphere. Agreement that developments in this direction represent the logical, most promising key to a better future for our planet is now becoming widespread. (Pp.21/22)

It is contended that the traditional teaching that would keep facts separate from values...is itself based on a logical error. (P.22)

What this recently revised outlook in science might mean for a merger with religion, and for the kind of value-belief system, ethic, and theology that might emerge has yet to be developed. Concepts of salvation, transcendent meaning, ultimate value and such like would have to be redefined and translated into a reference frame consistent with the world view of science. The task can be likened in some respects to that of trying to deduce what form religion and the teachings of Christ, Muhammed, Buddha, Confucius, and other founders, might have taken, if Copernicus, Darwin, Einstein and all the rest had come before their time instead of after. (P.28).

- - -
Neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate R.W. Sperry, a pioneer in brain development, in split-brain work, and influential through his consciousness-dominated mind-brain theory, has increasingly become preoccupied with the need for a responsible global ethic.

* * * * *
A society which seeks only justice without regard to its consequences cannot be just. It is unjust to many generations yet unborn.

Birch, C. and Cobb, B. (1981)


TOWARD INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

Tenzin Gyatso (The Fourteenth Dalai Lama)

Nor do I seek a new world religion...Our human minds, being of different calibre and disposition, need different approaches to peace and happiness.

Nor can we hope to replace the existing religions by a new and universal belief....We must bring about a viable consensus on basic spiritual values.

* * * * *
The Concept of Wabi.

Those who live their lives in one language culture may develop the idea that emotions are real things that actually exist and that are identical for all humans. But anyone who has experienced more than one culture knows that this is by no means the case. There are words labeling emotions in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and no doubt every language which do not have corresponding labels in other languages.

Consider the Japanese term wabi. Although this is a common term, it has particular relevance to the contemplative practices of Japan....Soshitsu Sen [explains that] "the aesthetic of wabi...is sometimes translated as rusticity. But this aesthetic should not be confused with a love of the rustic. Wabi is a state of mind. It is better expressed by words such as frugality, simplicity, and humility." By way of trying to illustrate this concept, to evoke the feeling of it in English-speaking people, he says, "People seek flowers in full bloom; yet, while loving their beauty, we must appreciate the effort that brings forth these same flowers to full bloom. A tiny sprout pushes forth, knowing that it is spring. It has no choice; it must grow or perish. The truth of nature can be known from the life of a flower. A person who has not experienced the rigors of austerity like the grasses cannot hope to understand the essence of wabi. It is only natural to appreciate the beauty of flowers in their season, but it requires a finer sense to uncover the beauty of grasses beneath the snow." Some readers of this passage might not even recognize that the author is talking about an emotion at all, and there seems to be no equivalent word in the English language, and perhaps no equivalent feeling in the English speaker. Yet the experience of wabi is as real to a Japanese person as "getting high" or "feeling blue" is to an American. (P.88)

- - -
Excerpt from: Shifting Worlds, Changing Minds by Jeremy Hayward (1987).

Editor and science-philosopher Jeremy Hayward teaches Buddhism.

* * * * *
Hanna Newcombe -- Excerpts from "The Expansions of Economics" (1989).

[Describing an alternative to the view that work is a burden.] Productive work, or service to others, is seen as a creative expression of one's human potential, as a human need without which we wither psychologically and spiritually, and as a human right which no one should deny us. Without meaningful work, without making a contribution to social well-being, we feel worthless, we feel bored (which is equivalent to mental depression), or we fritter away time in useless pursuit of pleasure which never deeply satisfies, or not for long.... We need a feeling of self-esteem, and to be esteemed by others, and this comes from accomplishments in our work, primarily. Deprived of this, we would float around, aimlessly without a sense of who we are. (P.92)

Thus, people motivated by community or equity or the Golden Rule would live in a different kind of economy than "economic man" does. There is nothing less rational or more rational about the alternative motivations, it is simply a moral choice. People not only can, but sometimes do, make these alternative choices, the good ones as well as the bad ones. Why should the science of economics limit itself to consider only one of the range of common human motivations? By considering self-interest "normal," it actually encourages greed, just as the "realist" model of international relations encourages power-seeking by legitimizing it as "normal." Real people are sometimes better and sometimes worse than theory postulates. (P.93)

Gandhi's basic equation is "happiness equals needs satisfied divided by needs perceived." The West has chosen to increase happiness by increasing needs satisfied (the numerator of the quotient); so has the Soviet system, and the general philosophy of development through growth. Gandhi and Schumacher choose to increase happiness by decreasing the denominator, namely perceived needs. This is like putting a premium on LESS greed, i.e., the exact opposite of Western economics.

The knowledge of other economic systems of value opens our minds to the possibility of change, if this is found desirable, in our own economic system, and in our science of economics. Here we suggest only a widening of economics to include all alternatives, not a substitution of one system for another -- at least not until after careful examination and thorough testing. The basic premise for this is an open mind. (P.94)

We have to build our plans for people as they are, not as they should be; and balance natural health with social health to maximize human satisfaction and potential. (P.96)

- - -
Dr. Hanna Newcombe is Co-Director of the Peace Research Institute-Dundas, Ontario, Canada.

* * * * *
Randall Forsberg

From 1968 to 1974 Ms. Forsberg worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, where she conducted a major comparative study of worldwide military research and development programs. -- The Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, a nonprofit research centre in Massachusetts, was founded by Forsberg in 1980. -- Since 1984, Ms. Forsberg has been studying long-term policy alternatives.

The following comments are from a press conference held in 1989:

Question: Many people see world government as necessary, as the only possible solution to our global problems. Do you agree?

Forsberg: The problem with world government is that you face an even worse tyranny than the tyranny of small elite -- the tyranny of a misguided majority with no balances, no counter-balancing authority or power. That is my reaction to the traditional image of world government: an all-powerful government with the monopoly on the use of force.

I have been trying to move toward an alternative concept -- a "regime" that many people wouldn't call world government. Think of all the different international agreements in which nations give up some little piece of sovereignty out of their own self-interest. All of those overlapping agreements could form a kind of world government, a joint regulatory world system.

We regulate air travel with air traffic control, we regulate the mail and there is now a growing global regulation of finance. In this notion, each country participates to the extent that it is affected. In such overlapping regimes of mutual self-interest, all of the participants give up as much sovereignty as they see being in their own interest.

* * * * *
"A great writer is like a second government."

Alexander Solszhenitzyn


THOUGHT IN ACTION

The University of the World
(Excerpts from their pamphlet)

The University of the World is a private, non-governmental, multinational, academic organization. Incorporated in the State of California, it is tax exempt in the United States and is taking steps to become so in certain other countries. It strives to be, under a multinational Board, a "global umbrella" covering the academic activities of all nations, a novel international coalition of scholars and students -- nongovernmental, nonpolitical, and nonprofit.

We propose by 1991 to begin operations appropriate to an electronic world university.

A fundamental purpose of this special university is to provide its members with worldwide access to educational and research experts and resources. Its founders plan to use various international media, including radio, television, computer networks, compact discs, video discs, specialized software, and other means to provide access to such resources.

Democratic government is impossible in countries with a poorly educated citizenry. [Many developing countries] cannot train teachers even to minimal standards. Unless mass education by modern technologies is employed, these countries may never in the foreseeable future be able to take their proper place in the world and provide a reasonable quality of life for their citizens.

The University of the World does not plan to relate only to higher education, but rather to cover the entire spectrum from preliterate education to postdoctoral and adult continuing education and research, as well as academic libraries and data bases.

Operation of the University of the World will inevitably raise many difficult and complex issues among nations....Language problems must be solved... How can a nation be prevented from indoctrinating or attempting to control others over University of the World networks?

A broadening of perspective and an inclusion of other cultural and ethnic viewpoints.... will help to bind nations together in mutual understanding and cooperative peaceful pursuits.

In the early 1960s a common reaction, even in some sophisticated scientific bodies, to plans for national research and educational electronic networks, was that they were visionary "science fiction" and could never be operated. Today they are a reality.

University of the World, Central Office: 1055 Torrey Pines Road, Suite 203, La Jolla, California 92037, U.S.A.

* * * * *
It is generally estimated that students can become proficient in Esperanto in 20-25 percent of the time it takes them to reach the same level of competence in English or French.

(Glossup, 1988)

Dr. Ronald Glossup is Vice President of the World Federalist Association.

===================================
Contentment

Contentment. The word is printed across the blue sky over a snow-covered mountain, framed by evergreens. A foaming brook breaks through the low brushwood, expanding to fill the lower third of a small magazine cover. -- On opening the pages, one discovers touchingly simple poetry -- a world-wide collection -- unassuming, rustic, dominated by nature-imagery, and interspersed with haikus, a Japanese art form of utter simplicity and depth, containing not more than about three short lines. All superfluous words are carefully pared away to leave room for the reader's imagination.

The collector of the poems? A lady nearing her 80s, living alone in a one-room city apartment. Of course, she writes poetry too, has received several prizes, and even written a small book on local history -- but mostly, she just enjoys these poems and likes to share them with others. Her quarterly is not particularly future-oriented; in fact, what dominates are dreams of a simpler life in the past. -- And yet, it embodies what we need most for a sustainable world: contentment.

- - -
The quarterly, called Amber, is available from:

SEASHELL PRESS, Hazel F. Goddard, #404 - 40 Rose St.
Dartmouth, N.S., Canada B3A 2T6. -- $10.- 4 issues.
Each issue shows a different picture. The one with the scenery headed "contentment" appeared in January 1990.

[Update 2000]: Hazel F. Goddard, a good friend of mine who taught me the secret of publishing with a minimum of expenses, has in the meantime passed away.


REFLECTIONS

"What is best to do if we cannot do what we wanted to do in the first place?" -- These words, leading our thoughts into a positive direction, are the best and most helpful reaction to McDermott's provoking and extremely important considerations.

We may fully agree with his warning that action on the basis of wrong assumptions will increase, rather than decrease, our human predicament. Yet we may still fundamentally disagree with his council to do nothing. To do nothing is impossible; nor can we wait until we have gained enough knowledge to be certain that we are heading in the right direction. The acquisition of new knowledge is an unending process.

We are floating incessantly forward on the river of our accumulated actions into an unknown future. Sometimes, we dimly discern in the distance the ominous roar of falling waters. Though the night is dark and the fog is thick, we cannot wait until morning.

What can we do? -- I cannot share the belief of McDermott and others that "commitment, caring, and involvement" ought to be suspended. To expel from our thoughts concern for our fellow beings is like throwing our best pilot overboard during a period of greatest danger. Once concern for our fellow beings is lost, all barriers against atrocities and mass-murders are removed.

But avoidable misery on earth can be reduced only if care and concern are tied to the study of foreseeable consequences of what we do and to incessant vigilance and readiness to change course as soon as unforeseen consequences and dangers become visible. -- Perhaps the safest advance toward our future will depend upon a constant co-evolution of facts and values in the realm of our understanding.


Acknowledgments: For permission to quote, I thank M. Konner, H. Newcombe, M.V. Naidu, R.W. Sperry, and Praeger (A division of Greenwood Press, Inc.) for quotes from OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE by T.E. Jones.

* * * * *

REFERENCES

Birch, C. and Cobb, J.B. Jr. (1981). The Liberation of Life. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Boulding, K. (1982). The War Trap. In Toward a Just World Order, Falk, R., Kim, S. and Mendlovitz, S.H., (Eds.), pp. 225-238. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Churchland, P. Smith (1986). Neurophilosophy. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Falk, R., Kim, S. and Mendlovitz, S.H. (Eds.)(1982). Toward a Just World Order. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Forsberg, R. (1989). Randall Forsberg discusses her Work and the Current International Situation. Peace Magazine, 5(4), 10-11.

Glossup, R. J. (1988). Language Policy and a Just World Order. Alternatives, 13, 395-409.

Gyatso, T. (The Fourteenth Dalai Lama) (1984). A Human Approach to World Peace. London: Wisdom Publications.

Hayward, J.W. (1987). Shifting Worlds, Changing Minds. Boston: New Science Library - Shamhala.

Jonas, H. (1984). The Imperative of Responsibility. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Jones, T.E. (1980). Options for the Future. New York: Praeger.

Jordan, V. (1982). Variations on a Theme of Maslow. The American Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2(2), 48-51.

Konner, M. (1982). The Tangled Wing. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

McDermott, W.B. (1989). The Forbidden Agenda. Transnational Perspectives, 15(1), pp 6-8.

Newcombe, H. (1989). The Expansions of Economics. M.V. Naidu (Ed.), Peace Research, 21(4), 3-10, 91-97.

Sperry, R.W. (1983). Changed Concepts of Brain and Consciousness: Some Value Implications. 1982-1983 Isthmus Foundation Lecture Series. Perkins Journal, 36(4), 21-32. Reprinted in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, (1985), 20, 41-57.

Wicken, J.S. (1989). Toward an Evolutionary Ecology of Meaning. Zygon, 24, 153-184.


About the Publisher/Editor

Erika Erdmann, now retired from her work as library research assistant of Nobel Laureate R.W. Sperry, has conducted an independent research project "In Search of Values for Human Survival" (UMI # LDO1257), which revealed that the survival of our species is threatened by three major causes. The first, nuclear warfare, and the second, destruction of our life support system through overpopulation and greed, are both well known, well publicized, and have led to vigorous counteractions.

The third cause is loss of confidence in humankind, the belief that our species is unable to overcome the pervasive struggle for power which will inexorably lead to its extinction, or even that it is not worth saving. -- This last cause remains comparatively unrecognized, but it may be the most dangerous one. -- Tracing the depth and extent of that conviction back from its discovery in one survey answer was disturbing and frightening. -- The present journal therefore seeks to help restore confidence in humankind.